Starter for engines.



C. A. MUDGE.

STARTER FOR ENGINES.

APPLICATION FILED MAR-4, i915- 1,208,353. Patented Dec 12,1916.

Wam v UNITED STATES PATENT onn on.

CHARLES A. KUDGE, OI NIAGARA FALLS, NEW iOBK, ASSIGNOB, BY MESNE ASSIGN- IENTS, TO U. S. LIGHT AND HEAT CORPORATION, OF NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK,

A CORPORATION OFNEW YORK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 12, 1916.

Application filed larch 4, 1915. Serial N 0. 11,847.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES A. Mums, a citizen of the United States, residing at Niagara. Falls, in the county of Niagara and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Starters for Engines, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompan ing drawing, forming a part of this speci cation.

his invention relatesto starters for engines.

It is one of the objects of the invention to provide a simple, inexpensive and durabl'e starter, and one in which the parts are compactly arranged.

It is another object of the invention to provide simple means for conveniently housing the working parts of the device and such as will permit the starter to be supported closely proximate the internal 'combustion engine;

Another object lies in the provision of simple and reliable speed reducing means and the arrangement thereof in compact form.

Still another object is to provide an effective-transmission completing and interrupting device occupying a, minimum amount of' space transversely of the motor shaft.

Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out hereinafter.

In the drawings wherein is shown one of the various possible embodiments of the in-' vention-Figure 1 is a central horizontal transverse sectional view of a starting device embodying the present invention. Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2, 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a schematic view showin the device associated with the fly-wheel 0 an internal combustion engine. V

The embodiment herein shown and described has a housing, a motor, a system of planetary gearing for the transmission of power to the motor shaft, a feed device for assisting in automatically completing and interrupting the train of power transmitting devices between the motor and the internal combustion engine, a power storing device, and other elements as will hereinafter apthe fly-wheel of the engine, a cap 3, which fits over the commutator portion of the armature, and an intermediate tubular portion 4 which enga es and supports the transmission parts. This intermediate tubular portion 4 is flanged near one end as at 5, and secured to the hood 2 by the screws 6. A flange 7, at the opposite end of the tubular portion 4, is bolted to the field structure of the motor and cooperates with a flange '8, formed on the cap 3, to support the field structure, suitable screws 9 assing through the flange 8 into the field. he tubular portion 4 has also an inwardly extending flange 10 which serves to support suitable antifriction bearings 11 for the armature shaft. Another anti-friction bearing 12 is arranged within the cap 3. The armature shaft 13 is supported on the bearings 11 and 12 and has fixed therewith the usual windings and commutator forming the armature l4.-

. Secured within the tubular portion 4 of the housing is a stationary gear member 15, and fixed upon the end 16 of the motor shaft 13, projecting pinion 17. second shaft 18 is mounted for rotation in a bearing 19. This shaft has a stud portion 20 which engages with the bearing, a threaded portion 21, for a purpose which will be hereinafter set forth, a shank or body portion 22, and a reduced end portion which supports a disk 23 which inturn carries loosely mounted thereon, as by pins 24:, a plurality of intermediate gears 25. Each of the gears 25 comprise teeth which mesh with the teeth of the pinion 17 and at points diametrically opposite, with the teeth of the internal gear 15, the whole forming a system of planetary gearing. The body portion 26 o a torsion spring 27 surrounds a portion of the shank 22 of the shaft 18. One end of this spring is secured to the shaft 18 as by the bolt 28 and the opposite end is secured to the disk or plate 23 as by a bolt 29. A shiftable pinion 30 is interiorly threaded to correspond to the exterior threads of the portion 21 of the shaft 18. The pinion is provided with a flanged ortion 31 which is relieved about itsperip ery for a certain distance to unbalance the pinion on the threadedshaft. An internal combustion ene is indicated schematically at 32 and has ed with its crank shaft a fly-wheel 33, the flanged periphery 34 of which isi'provided' beyond the bearing 11, is a with gear teeth 35 adapted to mesh with the teeth on the pinion 30. i

The motor herein shown is of series field type and a starting switch 36 and storage battery 37 are arranged in an electrical circuit therewith.

In the operation of this device, to start the engine the operator closes the switch 36, throwing the battery 37 in circuit with the motor and energizing the latter, thereby causing rotation, at a comparatively high speed, of the pinion 17. As the internal gear 15 is stationary, the planet ears 25 will be revolved comparatively slow y by the pinion 17 around the axis of the motor. This action of the planet gears will cause corresponding movement of the disk or plate 23 which, through the torsion spring 27, will rotate the shaft 18. unbalanced, it will not rotate, but will be shifted lon itudinally along the shaft 18 by reason of t e rotation of the threaded portion 21 thereof. This longitudinal movement will effect a meshing of the pinion 30 with the gear teeth 35 of the engine flywheel, but no tendency to rotate the flywheel is exerted until the pinion 30 has reached the limit of its longitudinal move-- ment as determined b the threads on the s aft 18. When the pinion has reached the limit of its longitudinal meshing movement, there is a tendency, of course, for it to rotate with the shaft 18. The torsion sprin 27, however, is interposed between the sha 18 and the disk 23 and becomes active at this time to relieve sudden shock from the parts and simultaneously to store 'a certain amount of mechanical energy. When the spring has reached the limit of its torsional capacity, the pinion 30 will be operating under maximum efficiency to ropinion 30 will be driven by the fiy-wheel at tate the fiy-wheel 33. Accordingly, at this time, the fiy-wheel 33 is rotating, compression and ignition take place in the engine cylinders and the engine commences to operate under its own power. Thereupon the a greaterspeed than the shaft 18 is driven from the motor shaft 13.. It will be obvious, therefore, that the pinion 30 will move longitudinally in the opposite direction until the fly-wheel, gear and pinion will de-mesh. At this time, of course the pinion is beyond the influence of the fly-wheel and not affected in any way by the speed of the As the pinion 30 is the termination ofengine but as the pinion is unbalanced, as heretofore set forth, it will, by centrifugal action, maintain the longitudinal position on the shaft 18 into which it was thrown by the de-meshing action of the fiy-wheel, until such time as the shaft 18rotates at a very low speed or stops. It is intended, of course, that the starting switch 36 be opened immediately the gears are de-meshed. The motor armature shaft will then discontinue rotation and the pinion will find its balance on the shaft 18, safely out of contact with the fiy-wheel of the engine.

'As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments of the same could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the foregoing description, or shown in the accompanying drawings, shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

In combination, a geared rotatable member to be driven and means for driving said member including an electric motor having an armature shaft, a driven shaft in axial alinement therewith, a casin surrounding the adjacent ends of said sha s, an internal gear carried by said casing in fixed relation to said shafts, a pinion on the end of said armature shaft, a carrier rotatably mounted on the adjacent end of said driven shaft a plurality of gears rotatably carried by said carrier and meshing simultaneously with said pinion and said internal gear, a yieldable connection between said carrler and said driven shaft, said driven shaft having CHARLES A. MUDGE. Witnesses:

J ESSE A. HOL'ION,

AARON FORBER. 

